Shadow of the Past: The Impact of Franco on Modern-Day Spain…

This post is a lot heavier than any of my previous ones–mainly because it details how exactly the psycho-sociological scars of a nightmare that ended almost barely 40 years ago can still be felt here in Spain…For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, I’m referring to the dictatorship of this man:

…Gen. Francisco Franco…

O.K., I’m going to try to give a little historical backdrop here (y mis españoles, no os enfadeís conmigo si me equivoco en algo)…In 1931, a Segunda [II] República was proclaimed, and with it came a constitution with a basis in liberalistic principles, such as universal suffrage and the secularization of the State…Hence, there came a lot of reforms that attempted to modernize the country…

The ultra-conservatives protested all of these initiatives, believing them to be too extreme…When the Frente Popular, a diverse coalition of liberals, won the elections in 1936, Franco and some of his other allies in the military decided that enough was enough with the “red” policies–and therefore, they executed a coup de’tat on July 18 that same year, which became the starting point of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)…

The Civil War here was something that truly divided and decimated the country…Friends, neighbors, and even family members were torn apart because of the whole issue of loyalty to whatever side they were on: los nacionalistas (Franco’s side) or los republicanos (the resistance)…Whole cities were completely razed, and the scattered bodies of victims, soldiers and civilians alike, were strewn everywhere the eye could see…A good artistic representation of all the chaos that went on is Guernica by Picasso, which depicts the aftermath of an “artillery test” (Read: bombing) on the town of the same name by some of Franco’s German allies…

All the while, you couldn’t really place a “hero” label to either side, because both bands committed atrocities…

Unfortunately, the war ended with Franco’s victory, and for 36 years afterward, the people of Spain had to endure through much socio-economic hardship…

See, Franco considered himself to be the grand “savior” of España from the chaotic, evil Segunda República, and he saw himself as the means of returning the country to its former (16th-century) glory–And that entailed bringing back the traditionalist’s traditional Spain, where the official (and only) state religion is militant Catholicism, there is no legal political entity apart from el franquismo, and absolutely no mention is made of the Republic or the republicanos…And, if your foolish enough to blatantly speak out against this pure essences of España, then you’re asking for jail, “reeducation through labor”, or death for your audacity…

Therefore, he isolated Spain from any sort of “contaminating” international influence–i.e. no foreign trade, and heavy censorship of whatever foreign media did make it into the country…Hey, that might have entailed the starvation (physically and intellectually [illiteracy also abounded]) of millions of Spaniards, but hey, it’s better to have your people hungry and ignorant than negatively influenced by any godless doctrine (please note that this is sarcasm here)…

Eventually, Franco and his government died in 1975, bringing much rejoicing throughout the nation…Nevertheless, reminders of this dark time in history can still be seen…

Case-in-point: Salamanca…During the War, Franco lived here for like, a year, because Castilla was a region dominated by the nacionalistas…When walking down the streets, you can see various símbolos franquistas …

The coat-of-arms found on the flag during the dictatorship on the building of Correos (the post office)…Traditionally speaking, the eagle, arrows, and yoke were associated with the Reyes Católicos (Fernando and Isabel)–therefore, you can see the association Franco was making for himself here…

La Plaza de los Caídos (The Plaza of the Fallen), where people who fought and died fighting for Franco were commemorated…

La Avenida de Italia, a street whose name pays homage to Italy, another fascist country that supported Franco during the war (and afterwards)…

Franco’s medallón in the Plaza Mayor, located where the medallones of all the major monarchs are (again with the association)…People often throw paint on it as a sign of their “reverence” for the man…

Of course, objects of this nature can be found all over the country, like…

…El Valle de los Caídos (The Valley of the Fallen)…

Technically during our first excursion, but I didn’t write about it because I didn’t particularly enjoy it all that much…Don’t get me wrong, the sight itself and the interior are rather beautiful–there’s just one problem: Franco and his right-hand-man José Antonio Primo de Rivera, along with over 30,000 fallen from both sides in the war, are buried here…I don’t know–the fact that this guy is buried with people who died from a conflict that he started in a monument supposedly built to “honor” them did not sit well with me…At all…

And the lasting impact of Franco is mental as well…Both my host parents lived during the dictatorship–my Host Dad moreso because he’s a little over a decade older than my Host Mom…When I tried to ask him if he had any sort of somewhat personal memories or experiences of this time that he could tell me, he said that he did, but he doesn’t want to talk to me about it–not out of any sort of issues with me, but because it’s an era that those who lived through it don’t want to talk about…As I looked into his intense blue eyes as he was telling me this, I could see that there’s definitely a lot of emotional scars that have been made that are still there for him…

Y a mis españoles: Lo sé que sólo soy una guiri que aún no entiende, y jamás  comprederá completamente, lo que pasó en esta época, porque no viví en este país en este tiempo…Sin embargo, quiero deciros algo de mi corazón: Todos los países tienen alguna parte de su historia que les da vergüenza…Entonces, cuanto difícil que suene, se necesita aceptar que, desafortunadamente, que, sí, Franco y su gobierno existieron–pero esto no debe afectar su ni patriotismo (con la bandera y todo [he oído que se volvió menos popular llevar la bandera después de Franco, o algo]) ni el orgullo que teneís de ser y llamaros españoles…

On a final note, I find it interesting that people speak out against/criticize dictatorships in Africa, Asia, and South America when, not even 100 years ago, they existed in Europe–the Western, “civilized” world…